Signs of my times

When it comes to aging gracefully, a woman wants her family to read between the lines.

The other night as I was nestling next to my six-year-old daughter at bedtime, she looked me directly in the face and asked, “Mommy, why is there a fan between your eyes?” At first I had no idea what she was talking about.

Then it hit me. She meant those two vertical lines that have taken a slight hold where my nose meets my brow and are destined to become entrenched wrinkles that will deepen on my face for the rest of time.

I used to worry about my thighs when I looked in the mirror. Now, at 41, it’s my face. Specifically, the shirred skin around the edges of my mouth and eyes and the little road maps leading to nowhere on my forehead. There’s no doubt about it: my lifelines are beginning to show. So what am I going to do about it?